Creative Book Reports: Fun Projects with Rubrics for Fiction and Nonfiction »

Encourage your students to actively demonstrate their comprehension of both fiction and non-fiction with these alternative responses to literature! The thirty-nine standards-based projects in this resource appeal to all types of learners in grades 4-8. Easy-to-follow directions support you during every step of each project, helping you give clear, explicit instructions to your students. A reproducible rubric for each project helps students at all skill levels understand the grading criteria, and gives you an effective tool to easily assess reading comprehension. Includes a CD of customizable rubrics that you can adapt for other genres and content-area topics.

Brenda Dales - Children's Literature

Ideas abound in this compendium of alternative book report formats. 39 projects targeted to middle-school students are presented, including accordion book, mobile, milk carton, trading cards, pop-ups and more. For each project there is a reproducible page for students (easily printed from a Word file on an accompanying CD, with the option of customization) and a Teacher Page. The Student Page lists the title of the project, has a space for the student's name, and includes a brief explanation of the task, directions, and a rubric noting the criteria for evaluation. The Teacher Page includes the title of the project, brief statement of the value of the project, project description, materials, suggestions, other ideas (often connected to various content areas) and frequently a black-and-white photo of a sample completed project. A short introduction provides information about alternative responses to literature, background about rubrics, how to use the book, classroom management suggestions and ideas for displaying the projects. To best use these alternative book reports, teachers will want to help students identify why a particular format is appropriate for presenting the ideas and information from the book they read. A "Rubric Subject Index" divided into eight subjects such as "Character Rubrics" and "Literary Element Rubrics" assists with this process. 2004, Maupin House, Ages adult.